


Heir of Eternity

by Pandemi



Category: Danny Phantom, Justice League - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Ghost King Danny, Kinda, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, more characters to be added as they come, more like Ghost Prince Danny
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-26 12:46:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13858065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pandemi/pseuds/Pandemi
Summary: Superman was heading to the Watchtower’s mess hall when they got the alert. A massive burst of temporal energy was just detected in the arctic, close to Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. That instantly put him on edge; if a villain found out the location of his Fortress, even if they couldn’t get inside, it would cause all sorts of problems.The League decided to send Superman and Wonder Woman to investigate.





	1. A Boy and His Yeti

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! So I wrote the first chapter to this story, but I'm going to work on a couple of other stories first before I continue this one... mainly because I don't exactly have all of the plot down yet, and this one is going to be kinda long.

Superman was heading to the Watchtower’s mess hall when they got the alert. A massive burst of temporal energy was just detected in the arctic, close to Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. That instantly put him on edge; if a villain found out the location of his Fortress, even if they couldn’t get inside, it would cause all sorts of problems.

The League decided to send Superman and Wonder Woman to investigate.

As soon as they touched down near the Fortress, Superman focused on listening for any disturbances. After a minute of silence, he raised his hand to get Wonder Woman’s attention, then pointed to the south-east, a soft blizzard obstructing their view.

“I hear something coming from that direction. Footsteps. Labored breathing. A heartbeat, very slow.”

“Then let us hurry. Whoever it is sounds like they might be dying,” Wonder Woman said with a sense of urgency.

After a few minutes of trudging through the snow, a large form came into view. Superman and Wonder Woman tensed, expecting some sort of fight; but when the form seemed to fall to their knees, the two heroes ran over to the collapsed being.

When they got closer, they were slightly taken aback when they saw a large creature the likes of which they have never seen before.

Even while on its knees, it was still as tall as Superman. It was covered in white fur, except on its grey, bear-like face. Its left arm seemed to be made of ice and bone, as well as the two horns on its head. It wore a tattered, blue cloth half-cape and skirt. Golden armor adorned the skirt with a teal jewel in the center, as well as a golden band on its right upper arm. It had a long white tail with small spikes at the end that also seemed to be made of ice.

What really surprised the Leaguers, however, was that it was littered with deep gashes that seemed to ooze a green substance that was most likely its blood. Its face held a deep sort of grief that betrayed its intelligence.

When examining further, they noticed a small humanoid form cradled in the yeti-like creature’s arms. The child wore a ragged, white hooded cloak that hid most of their features except for some black pants and white boots. They were also covered in the same bright green that oozed out of the yeti, with little spots of red mixed in.

“I thought you said that you only heard one heartbeat,” Wonder Woman asked, eyeing the injured child, a small feeling of dread creeping into her voice.

“I did, but… Diana,” Superman turned to Wonder Woman, now that he was closer to the figures, he realized— “The heartbeat is coming from the kid.”

As they stepped closer, the creature shifted and lifted its head. It stared at them with unfocused, yellow eyes, dulled by pain and exhaustion. It opened its mouth, and to their surprise, began to speak.

“Please… you must… save… the Great One…” and with what seemed like the last of his strength, he held out the limp form of the child.

When not pressed up against the massive shape of the yeti, the two Leaguers saw that the child was not as small as they first thought. In fact, he looked like a teenager.

As the creature held him out, his hood and part of his cloak fell away, allowing the two Leaguers to get a better view of the boy. He wore a black, full-body suit with white gloves, boots, and a belt. His suit was torn in several places, showing bruises and gashes that bled a mixture of green and red. The teen also had white hair; not silver as though aged, but pure white like freshly fallen snow; which made the red and green stains of his apparent blood all the more striking. He had a large bruise on his cheek and multiple, smaller cuts scattered across the rest of his face.

As Wonder Woman took the boy from the large creature, Superman moved to catch the yeti before he collapsed completely. Superman put one of the creature’s large arms around his shoulder, and tried to steady them so that most of his weight was placed on Superman.

“Diana, I think this guy’s still alive, but I don’t hear a heartbeat coming from him.”

“I sense powerful magic from both the creature, and this boy that he called ‘the Great One.’ It feels like death… but I do not think that it is malicious, in fact, it feels like there is an aura of peace coming from the boy.” Wonder Woman stared in disbelief at the boy now in her arms. She looked back up at Superman.

“They also both have rapidly fading temporal energy coming off of them,” she smiled lightly. “I believe we have just found the source of the alert.”

Superman pulled out his communicator to contact the Justice League.

“Superman and Wonder Woman to the Justice League, we’ve found the cause of the temporal energy,” Superman informed the League.

“What is it?” Batman’s voice asked through the communicator.

“Two beings. A large yeti-like creature, and a boy, probably around fifteen or so. Wonder Woman can sense powerful magic coming from both of them,” Superman told him. “They are also both heavily injured and need medical attention. I’m going to take them to the Fortress.”

“Are you sure that’s a wise idea? You don’t know anything about them.” Batman was understandably suspicious of these newcomers. “I’m sending Zatara down there to assist you.”

“Wonder Woman said that their auras didn’t feel malicious, and my gut is telling me that they can be trusted. We’ll be in the Fortress, I’ll contact you again when they wake up.” Superman shut off his communicator, and started walking with Wonder Woman towards his icy palace, carrying the two mysterious beings with them.

* * *

Once the heroes got the two to the Fortress’ infirmary, they were able to lay them down and properly assess the damage.

They were surprised to find that most of the minor cuts and bruises on both beings were completely healed, and some of the larger wounds looked smaller. Superman and Wonder Woman shared a small look of relief, knowing that if the two had advanced healing abilities, it would increase their chances of survival by a large amount.

Superman’s eyes dilated then contracted as he activated his X-Ray vision to see if either of them had any broken bones or internal bleeding as Wonder Woman got the supplies to start stitching up their larger wounds.

His eyes widened in surprise as he examined the yeti. He quickly turned to the boy to see if he was the same, and let out a small sigh of relief. Wonder Woman gave him a look of confusion when she came back to see Superman in a slight state of panic.

“What is wrong?” She asked, her own panic now growing.

“Well- it’s just- he-“ Superman struggled for the right words, gesturing towards the large creature. “He doesn’t have _anything_. No bones, no organs, nothing! It’s almost like he’s just a mass of- of _something_ , given form!”

“And what of the boy?” Wonder Woman turned to the smaller of the two with worry creasing her brow. If these newcomers’ biology was nothing like their own, especially to the point of having no internal organs or bones, the heroes might not be able to help them at all.

“No, his anatomy is incredibly similar to a human’s,” Superman said with a hint of relief. “He does have a few broken bones though; his left arm and leg, as well as a few ribs. Other than that and those large gashes, as far as I can tell, he should be fine once he heals up a bit more.”

Superman turned to look at the yeti once more.

“The big guy, though? I have no idea. If you didn’t say that you can sense his magical aura, I don’t think I’d be able to tell if the guy was still alive or not,” Superman said, a little frustrated at his lack of usefulness in the current situation.

“In any case, we need to do what we can to aid them,” Wonder Woman started to distribute the medical supplies so they could start helping the two hopefully-not-dying newcomers.

* * *

It took the both of them about two and a half hours to stitch the two beings back together enough so they wouldn’t bleed out before their enhanced healing could seal their wounds. They were almost done cleaning and putting away the equipment when a tone sounded across the fortress, signaling to Superman that he had a visitor at the front entrance.

“That’s probably Zatara,” Superman said as he made his way to the door.

He opened the billion ton door to be greeted by the smiling face of Giovanni Zatara, slightly pink from the cold, and wrapped up in a large coat.

“Let’s hope your fortress has heating, yes? While powerful, even my magic cannot keep this cold away completely.” Zatara strode into the icy palace, leaving Superman to lead him to the infirmary.

“Greetings, Zatara. I hope you are well,” Wonder Woman welcomed the magician.

“I am. Now, I hear from Batman that you found two new magicians? I cannot help but wonder—“ Zatara stopped short when he entered the infirmary and saw the two beings laying on the medical beds. He turned to Wonder Woman with wide eyes. “Is this—“

“Death magic, yes,” Wonder Woman confirmed. “What do you make of it?”

Zatara moved closer to the two beings, finger tapping his chin, brows furrowed in concentration.

“It does not seem to be a curse,” he muttered. He silently examined the larger, touching the golden armor, picking at the icy arm, and rubbing the course fur in between his fingers. He hummed in contemplation, and moved to the smaller. He examined the boy’s white hair in the same manner, and lifted his uninjured arm to feel the fabric of his suit. When he was satisfied, he turned back to Wonder Woman and Superman.

“This is the highest concentration of Death magic that I’ve ever felt. But it is not Necrotic, it almost seems… natural,” Zatara informed the two waiting heroes. He took a reaffirming breath.

“I believe these two are spirits.”

“What?” Both Wonder Woman and Superman looked at him confused.

“Spirits? As in ghosts? As in dead people? But that kid still has a heartbeat! I mean, it’s very slow, but it’s still there,” Superman explained. “I never heard a heartbeat from the big guy, but the kid’s still alive.”

“Maybe the child is not a full spirit, but perhaps, the vessel of one,” Zatara thought out loud. “The large one has a much higher concentration of Death than the boy.”

“We won’t know for sure until they wake up,” stated Wonder Woman, unsure of how she felt that the young teen might be a spirit.

“I might be able to help with that,” Zatara smirked.

“I don’t think that’s a—“

_**“Nekawa stirips!”** _

The yeti’s eyes opened quickly, as he jolted awake into an upright position. His eyes focused on the three heroes and narrowed in suspicion.

“Who are—“ he started, before hearing a soft groan from the bed next to his. He practically leapt off his bed and kneeled before the other’s.

“Great One! Great One, can you hear me?” He asked, worry plain in his voice. The heroes looked at each other, before moving slightly closer.

The boy’s eyes slowly opened to reveal a green that almost seemed to be glowing. Dull and unfocused, he looked towards the yeti.

“Frostbite?” The boy’s voice was rough, as if worn. “Did we win?”

The yeti, now known to the heroes as Frostbite, looked down sadly at the boy and took his hand.

“No, Great One… we did not. Despite our warnings, or perhaps even in spite of them, the humans continued with their plan. They—“ Frostbite lightly squeezed the boy’s hand and shut his eyes in anguish. “They destroyed everything. Our homes, our people, everything… it is all gone.”

The boy looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes, a few tears dropping down his face as he spoke.

“I… I didn’t think they would hate us that much to destroy themselves in the process.” He turned back to Frostbite, guilt written on his face. “I couldn’t save them, Frostbite. I was supposed to be their protector; they all called me their savior, but—“ his voice wavered as more tears fell. “But I couldn’t even convince one group of humans not to commit mass genocide. The humans, the ghosts, they’re all just… gone… No life, no afterlife... that just leaves Oblivion. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone… not even them.”

The three heroes stared silently with a varying mix of sadness, surprise, and confusion on their faces.

The boy’s eyes dulled even more as he struggled to keep them open.

“So… this is it, huh?” He looked around the room, unfocused and tired eyes not truly seeing or comprehending. “Oblivion… is brighter… than I… thought… it would… be…” The boy closed his eyes and his breathing became steadier as he fell back to sleep.

“I am truly sorry, Great One. This burden should never have been yours to bear.” Frostbite closed his eyes and stayed there for a few moments, not moving. Although still confused, the heroes let the large creature have a few moments of silence to himself. After a minute, though, Superman became restless and felt the need to speak up.

“What happened to you? Is… is he going to be alright?” He asked the yeti.

Frostbite stood up, and turned towards the group with a sad smile on his face.

“You are a kind one for worrying about our safety, and I thank you for tending to the Great One’s and my wounds. With a few days’ rest, he should be fine. Allow me to introduce myself,” He stood up straighter and cleared his throat. “I am Frostbite, Leader of the Far Frozen,” he gestured to the sleeping teen, “and this is the Great One, the mighty Lord Phantom, Heir to the Throne of Eternity, and Savior of the Infinite Realms.”

The heroes blinked. 

“What?”

 


	2. Confusion on Both Sides

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m back! Woo!
> 
> I definitely feel better about writing multi-chapter fics after Icebound… I’m really glad that I waited to do this because now I have an actual story instead of just a bunch of lore, and I think you’re all (probably) going to like it.
> 
> Thank you all for coming back, and enjoy!  :D
> 
> But first, a small warning:  This chapter may be a bit confusing at some parts because I’m including some lore that may not be incredibly essential to the upcoming story, but it does explain why some people know what they know and why some people act the way they do. The lore includes a sort of time-travel-but-not-really-time-travel. I’ll try to explain it the best I can when it comes up, but if I didn’t have it then I’d have to re-outline the motivations and knowledge of like, half the fic. … So I guess it is pretty essential to the story.
> 
> Also, I’m sorry, but this is a massively dialogue heavy chapter. Literally nothing else will happen.

 

_"I am Frostbite, Leader of the Far Frozen,” he gestured to the sleeping teen, “and this is the Great One, the mighty Lord Phantom, Heir to the Throne of Eternity, and Savior of the Infinite Realms.”_

_The heroes blinked._

“What?” Zatara breathed. “ _You_ are…? And—and _he_ is…? But he’s… And you said… But that would mean… Unless he…” Zatara rambled, unable to finish a thought before the next one came. Both he and Wonder Woman stared wide-eyed at the mountainous spirit before them as Frostbite furrowed his bushy brows in confusion, glancing between the two.

“It seems as though the Great One and myself are known in this world,” the ghost said slowly, as if thinking out loud. “I had thought that all contact with the multiverse had been lost after the _Rift_.” He frowned slightly and shifted his weight to stand in front of the boy, defensive. “Tell me, strangers, will this be a cause for celebration, or will it breed more violence? I thank you for taking care of our wounds, but I will not allow the Great One to suffer more heartbreak at the hands of misplaced trust.”

Immediately, Superman stood in between the yeti and his own companions.

He had never really gotten into the history and lore of magic and spirits; he may not know the names or titles that the ghost used that Wonder Woman and Zatara seem to have recognized, or what this _Rift_ was, but he had always been good at picking up context clues and piecing together information—not as good as Batman of course, but his own intuition had helped to fill the gaps.

From what he could tell, this _Lord_ _Phantom_ kid had been some sort of ghostly hero in a different dimension or universe. However, like the boy had said during his brief time in the waking world, a group of people had hated the spirits so much that they tried to destroy them all, and ended up destroying everything instead. This boy that seemed to be somehow a _living ghost_ —if both ghosts’ differences in physical makeup were anything to go by, plus the fact that the boy still had a _heartbeat_ —had lost faith in humanity that day, and Frostbite—probably his guardian of some sort—was determined not to let that happen again.

Both yeti and child had just come from a severely traumatic event, and Superman wouldn’t allow a misunderstanding to lead to violence and possibly more injury. So he did the only thing he could think of. He stood in front of the large ghost, raised his palms, and turned on his _diplomatic mode_.

“I don’t believe people of this world have any quarrels with spirits, right?” He looked to Wonder Woman and Zatara who just shook their heads, still a bit stunned at Frostbite’s sudden defensiveness. “We’ve even got a ghost in the League: Deadman.”

“ _’League’_?” Frostbite repeated as he relaxed his posture. Superman smiled warmly. _Conflict avoided_.

“The Justice League.” he explained. “It was created to be a network for heroes from around the world, and sometimes beyond. We share our time and resources to make sure that every hero has the support they need when they need it, and to efficiently team up for the larger threats that none of us would be able to face on our own.” He held out his hand for the yeti to shake. “I’m Superman, from the planet Krypton, and one of the co-founders of the League. This is my Fortress, my home away from home, you could say; it’s certainly not, uhh, Oblivion, as your Great One called it.”

Frostbite visibly relaxed more and more as the explanation went on, and the tension in the room seemed to dissolve when the yeti shook Superman’s hand.

“I see… This _Justice League_ would have been an extraordinary benefit to the Great One when he first came to us,” Frostbite looked at the sleeping teen with sad eyes. Then he turned back to the three heroes and straightened his posture. “I believe an apology is in order.”

The yeti made a fist with his right hand and put it over the center of his chest. He then bowed just low enough so that the top of his head was level with Superman’s.

“Please forgive me for my outburst, I…” he trailed off. “It has been a very… difficult few months for us. In our most desperate hour, we placed the last of our faith in the wrong people, and… and it cost us everything.” He stood up straight and lowered his hand. “Now I hope you will forgive me once again for my bluntness, but who are you and how do you know of the Great One?”

Wonder Woman and Zatara shared a brief look. The magician flashed her a charismatic smile and strode towards the ghostly beast.

“Giovanni Zatara, _Magician Extraordinaire_ , at your service,” he took off his top hat and gave his best showman’s bow. After a moment, he stood back up and gave a slight chuckle. “I have simply read all a humble magician such as myself needs to know about magic, which includes the lost magic of the Infinite Realms, and I came across some of the legends of King Phantom and yourself.”

Frostbite raised an eyebrow.

“ _Legends_?—” he was about to ask, but Wonder Woman was already in front of him, both hands grasping his furry paw with a warm smile on her face.

“I am Diana of Themyscira, daughter of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons,” she introduced as she, too, bowed slightly. “It is a great honor to meet you, Lord Frostbite."

The previous question was lost as the ghostly yeti’s eyes widened, and for the first time since his arrival, he smiled without a hint of grief. The two other heroes tensed for a moment when the large creature let out a great guffaw and thrust his arms out and grabbed Wonder Woman by the waist, engulfing her in a furry hug, lifting her off her feet.

“So you are Hippolyta’s daughter! Last time I heard about you, you were just but a spark in your mother’s eye,” Frostbite set the woman down and clapped his hands on her shoulders. “Pandora spoke very highly of your mother and her Amazons, and was devastated in the years following the _Rift_. I know it has been almost five hundred years now, but tell me, was Lady Hippolyta ever able to secure that island paradise?”

His grin dropped at the look of remorse on Wonder Woman’s face, but it was quickly masked by a wavering smile.

“Yes, she was. Paradise Island is Themyscira, where I was born,” she confirmed. Frostbite furrowed his brow and sent her a questioning look, urging her to speak. After a moment of silence, she sighed and looked into the ghost’s eyes. “Lord Frostbite, how long ago were the Infinite Realms destroyed?”

Frostbite narrowed his eyes.

“The Great One and I were able to escape the destruction not but a day ago…” He glanced to the other heroes before turning his eyes back to Wonder Woman. “But I assume that this is not the case here.”

“I am truly sorry, Lord Frostbite, but to us, the Infinite Realms have been gone for a thousand years.”

“A—a thousand years? But we didn’t—the map didn’t send us—I was sure it wouldn’t—“ the large ghost sputtered before recognition dawned on his face. He looked down at the ground, hand cupping his chin, eyes darting this way and that, not focusing on anything in particular as he mumbled to himself. “Could this be the result of the same phenomena that happened after the _Rift_? I suppose it would make sense; the _Rift_ bled back almost five hundred years… the destruction of the Infinite Realms would have had a much deeper impact than _that_.”

The three heroes shared another look before the yeti once again focused his attention on them.

“What is this universe’s current year?” he asked.

“Um, 20XX,” Superman supplied. Frostbite nodded as if that had confirmed whatever he was mumbling about.

“Well… I suppose this means that the Great One would have little trouble settling into this universe,” he said. “As we come from the same year.”

The heroes, for the second time that day, just blinked.

“Ahh, forgive me, but I do not understand,” Zatara spoke up. “You come from the same year as us… a thousand years ago?”

“Yes… no. Hm, how can I explain this?” Frostbite chewed the inside of his lip as he thought. “The Infinite Realms used to span all of reality, the entire multiverse; _time_ has always worked a bit different there than in the mortal worlds. An event, twenty years ago, triggered the _Rift_ : the separation and collapse of the bridges to the other universes. The _Rift_ affected our whole reality, producing a wave of space-time energy that caused the effect of the _Rift_ to occur five hundred years prior… The complete destruction of the Infinite Realms would produce a much more massive wave of space-time energy. One day ago in my universe would be one thousand years ago in this one. In the next universe over, it is likely that there has never been a recorded history of the Infinite Realms; and the one after that, it simply never existed.”

A moment passed as the three processed the information.

“What… happened twenty years ago?” Superman asked.

“Paranormal scientists, studying rumors of the Infinite Realms—knowledge of magic and spirits was not as prevalent in that universe as it is in this one, everything had to be explained through science and technology or else it would be considered blasphemous,” the ghost scoffed. “They managed to build a machine that tore a hole through the _veil_ , as you might call it, resulting in an artificial anchor that forced an unnatural link between the Infinite Realms and that single universe. The anchor pulled the Infinite Realms closer to that universe, causing cracks and _rifts_ to form throughout reality, until everything beyond that one universe collapsed.”

“A moment, please,” Zatara held up a hand. “If travel between the universes became impossible, how did you and King Phantom’s son escape to our universe?”

“Well, I, as leader of the Far Frozen, was the keeper of an ancient artifact called the Infi-map,” Frostbite explained. “The map was created long before even I was born into the Realms, and still had some connection to the multiverse. When used within our universe, it would allow the user to travel through time and space, taking them anywhere and any-when they wanted to go. I knew it was a risk, but I thought that if I had asked the map to take us to a different universe, it might still be able to. I was right, of course, but the map is now gone—disintegrated—having used all of its power to—wait.“

He stopped, and furrowed his brows at the magician.

“King Phantom’s son?”

“Uh, yes?” Zatara said unconfidently. He glanced back to Wonder Woman who shrugged, she was just as confused as him. He turned back to the yeti and gestured to the boy sleeping on the medical bed. “Did you not say that this Great One of yours was _Lord_ Phantom? _Heir_ to the throne?” Frostbite nodded, but Zatara continued before he could say anything. “The legends only spoke of King Phantom; they never mentioned that he had an heir, but judging by how young he looks, I could only assume that he was King Phantom’s son. Was I wrong in assuming so?”

Silence reigned as Frostbite could only blink in confusion, the gears turning in his head. After a moment, something clicked, and the yeti’s face contorted slightly as he tried to hide a snicker, yet his eyes were filled with mirth.

“It seems like the unstable connection to the Infinite Realms, coupled with the amount of time that has passed in this world have twisted the truth a bit. The Great One will not be pleased when he finds out.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Superman scratched the back of his head.

“The legends were wrong,” Wonder Woman breathed, looking back to the boy. “That _is_ King Phantom, the Legendary Protector, the Last Great King before the Fall?”

“We all wanted him to be, but he never had the chance to be officially crowned,” Frostbite said, walking back to where the boy slept and rested a hand on the side of the cot. “He had always said that he wanted to complete his human schooling before he did anything whenever it was brought up.”

“Human schooling? So he’s—but I thought—he _is_ a spirit, is he not?” Zatara questioned. Superman looked up.

“No, he isn’t,” the Kryptonian replied. The yeti gave him a surprised look before he continued. “At least, not in the same way you are, right? I could tell that your physical makeups were different; both of you are made of the same substance, but he has bones while you don’t. Then there’s the fact that he has a heartbeat; he’s still alive, yet he has that…” he trailed off, trying to remember a detail. “Some sort of magic—what did you call it?” He turned to Zatara.

“A naturally occurring Death magic,” the man supplied. “Only ghosts and spirits can produce such magic. Others who have tried to recreate it have only succeeded in a perversion of the natural cycle: Necromancy. Yet I felt no necrotic energy when I was examining him earlier, so it must be natural.” He walked over to the other side of the cot as Frostbite. “Some of the legends did say that he ruled over Life and Death; at the time I thought it was just a metaphor, but now… What exactly is he?”

Frostbite shook his head and took a deep breath.

“You must forgive me, but I cannot say any more without the Great One’s permission. I fear that I have said far too much already.” He glanced at the heroes, then back to the boy. “I… do have one request, if you would permit it.”

The Leaguers shared a look, and Superman stepped forward.

“What’s the request?”

Frostbite smiled sadly as he carded his claws through the teen’s white hair.

“The Great One had been a hero to us in the Infinite Realms even before he defeated the tyrant king Pariah Dark,” he began. “However, everyone else that shared his views had responsibilities of their own. No matter how much we wanted to help him, we could not leave our people defenseless so that we may fight the evil that had been growing in the mortal realm… He has had friends and allies—I, myself, have mentored him when he first developed his power over ice—but no one who could truly help. He has always been alone, and he thought that he would always be alone.”

The yeti turned to the heroes that stood before him.

“I ask of you, that you would take us to your _Justice League_ , so that the Great One might awaken in the presence of heroes such as yourselves.”

+++ +++ +++

Frostbite scooped up the injured, white haired teen in his massive paws, and followed the three Leaguers outside to their ship. Superman decided to call ahead and inform Batman that they were going to have two new guests tonight.

“Zatara was able to wake them up, but the kid passed out again almost immediately,” he recounted. “The yeti called himself Frostbite, and calls the kid ‘Great One,’ or Lord Phantom. Apparently, they’re from an alternate dimension from another universe called the Infinite Realms—“

He heard a muffled exclamation from his communicator that sounded like it came from the other side of the room, followed by a long suffering sigh from Batman, and quick stomps getting louder.

_“Orion, we—“_ Batman was cut off by loud rustling. It seemed like someone had grabbed Batman’s communicator out of his hand.

_“Superman!”_ Orion’s voice shouted. _“Did you just say that you have found_ the _King Phantom of the Infinite Realms?!”_

Superman’s lips quirked upwards.

“Yeah, we did.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me at Pandemi-Writes on Tumblr for updates and one-shot/drabble requests, or if you just wanna say hi or something.
> 
> AN: Oh. My. GOD! I wrote and re-wrote the first scene at least a dozen times… Then I thought that I had it… and then I re-wrote it again, and this is it. I hope you’re happy with it because I promised myself that if I ever wanted to actually complete this chapter, I wouldn’t re-write it again.   
> AN2: And to those who don’t know “20XX” is just supposed to mean the current year that the fic is being read.   
> AN3: Sorry to those who thought/hoped that this would be a Shazam-centric fic… the Rock of Eternity has nothing to do with this. In fact, none of his titles really have any weight in the plot at all.
> 
> A simpler Rift analogy: Imagine a person standing on the edge of a dock. Suddenly, they fall in the water. Later, another person walks up to where the first person was, and thrusts their hands out. To the average on-looker, the two events seem unrelated, but the force of the push actually went back in time. (Also the event that caused the Rift was college Jack/Maddie/Vlad, because I was vague.)
> 
> I will not have scheduled uploading dates like Icebound did… In fact, I won’t be working on this 100% of the time; I will sometimes be working on one-shots of different AUs in-between some chapters.


	3. Behind the Scenes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really everyone, it means a lot to me that you’d still be interested in this fic after my 5 month hiatus (when I was writing Icebound), but now that I’m back to writing this, there is something that you all need to know.
> 
> For most of the authors here, they have school or work or both, but then writing is their main hobby; they do it whenever their able to. For me, writing is something I can do in the spare time of my spare time. I am a student first, then an illustrator, then an author. I write in between classes when I don’t have enough time to start drawing. Writing doesn’t put change in my pocket, and I’m behind on a pretty major art project (I’m doing the character art for an indie game) that I am determined to finish this semester (which I probably won't... 22 character tarot cards plus their in-game busts... it'll take me the better part of a year).
> 
> So please take that into consideration when I say that hopefully, this fic will update once or twice a month.

 

_-Beep-_

Batman had monitor duty that day. Not that he minded much.

_-Beep-_

Ever since they had expanded the League, the Watchtower was always so loud. But most people tended to avoid the monitor room; as if getting close to it would magically make their name appear on the roster for the next shift.

_-Beep-_

He should probably check in on Robin and Batgirl down in Gotham. They were old enough to go patrolling by themselves now, but he still worried—

_\--BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!—_

Batman was pulled from his thoughts at the sound of the alarm on the computer. He looked over the alert as it came on-screen.

_\--PERIMETER BREACH-- --ARCTIC CIRCLE; NORTH POLE— --TEMPORAL ENERGY DETECTED—_

Perimeter breach? The only thing out there is—

“Superman,” Batman called over the intercom. “We have a problem. Get to the monitor room immediately.”

+++ +++ +++

“What is it, Bruce? I was just heading in for lunch.”

“You’re going to have to eat on the way. Take a look at this.” Batman pushed a button on the dashboard, and an image of the alert popped up on the screen. Superman tensed, his brows drawing closer as he stared at the monitor.

“That’s near the Fortress,” he said as he turned back to Batman. “What happened?”

“Perimeter breach,” the Dark Knight replied. “Other than that, I’m not exactly sure. All we know is that a massive burst of temporal energy was detected in the arctic, close to your Fortress, which set off the alarms.”

“Right. I’m going to go check it out.” Superman turned to leave, but Batman put a hand on his shoulder, making him pause.

“Clark, we don’t know who or what is out there that can cause an energy burst that big,” he warned, knowing that Superman was eager to make sure his Fortress hadn’t been compromised. “You should at least ask Diana to go with you.”

The Kryptonian paused for a moment, considering the options, then nodded to Batman and left to go find Wonder Woman.

Alone once again, the Dark Knight sat down to get back to his monitor duty. It would take a little while for the heroes to get to the Fortress, so all he could do was sit, and wait for an update… and maybe go back to wondering if he should make a quick call to his young ward…

+++ +++ +++

_“Superman and Wonder Woman to the Justice League, we’ve found the cause of the temporal energy,”_ Superman’s voice rang through the quiet room.

“What is it?” Batman immediately asked. Superman didn’t sound panicked, winded, or angry, so it was safe to assume that whatever he encountered wasn’t violent or too imminently dangerous.

_“Two beings. A large yeti-like creature, and a boy, probably around fifteen or so. Wonder Woman can sense powerful magic coming from both of them… They are also both heavily injured and need medical attention. I’m going to take them to the Fortress,”_ the Kryptonian replied.

“Are you sure that’s a wise idea? You don’t know anything about them,” Batman tried to reason. He swore, Superman could be too trusting sometimes. Not everyone knew about the Kryptonian’s weakness to magic, but all the wrong people did; inviting two powerful magic users into his Fortress was just asking for trouble, no matter how injured they seemed. If they turned violent in any way, Superman wouldn’t stand a chance, and then Wonder Woman would be outnumbered. Batman did a quick mental tally of the different magical heroes that weren’t away on missions. “I’m sending Zatara down there to assist you.”

_“Wonder Woman said that their auras didn’t feel malicious, and my gut is telling me that they can be trusted,”_ Superman countered. The Dark Knight scowled. _“We’ll be in the Fortress, I’ll contact you again when they wake up.”_

The line went dead. Superman had shut off his communicator. Batman’s scowl deepened.

“Zatara, to the monitor room, now,” he ordered into the Watchtower’s intercom.

_“Yes, yes, I shall be right there,”_ the magician’s exasperated voice said through his communicator.

Almost five minutes later, the door to the room slid open, and in strode a tuxedoed Zatara.

“Why Batman, what can the _Great Giovanni Zatara_ do for you?” he said dramatically as he leaned on the dashboard. Batman opened the alert on the monitor.

“Perimeter breach at Superman’s Fortress; a massive temporal energy burst,” he informed. “Superman and Wonder Woman are already on-site, and they think they’ve found the cause: Two beings. A ‘yeti-like creature’ and a boy. Apparently, Wonder Woman can feel powerful magic coming from both of them.”

“And you need me to make sure things don’t get out of hand if everything goes south?” Zatara frowned.

“Superman seems confident that it won’t, but I don’t like taking chances,” Batman replied as he typed something into a data pad. “I’m giving you the coordinates. It’s going to be a long flight; leave as soon as you can.” With that, he handed the magician the data pad and sat back down at the monitor desk.

“Right then, ciao!” Zatara waved as he left to get ready for his trip to the North Pole.

+++ +++ +++

A couple hours later, the door slid open once again, and a tall, red-suited figure made his way into the room.

“Batman!” Orion called out. “I need the entire Justice League. Call them back from missions if you have to, this is more important than any human crime.”

“Orion,” Batman deadpanned. “I thought you were supposed to be on New Genesis.”

“I was, but then hours ago my Mother Box detected a high concentration of an energy signature that was unique to the Infinite Realms… on Earth,” he said, pulling out the small, rectangular Box. “We need to find it.”

Batman closed his eyes. The world can’t be _that_ small, can it? He typed on a few keys, then an image of the world map covered the largest monitor.

“Where exactly did your Mother Box detect this energy source?” He stood up to allow the New God better access to the map, but all Orion did was cross his arms and shift his weight.

“I don’t know.” He glared at the map as if it had insulted Highfather’s honor. “I was able to trace it back to Earth, but by the time I got here, the initial burst of energy had dispersed. It could be anywhere… That’s why I need the League to help me look for it.”

“Orion, we can’t just call everyone back to go on a wild goose chase,” the Dark Knight reasoned. He sat back down and started to type something. “We’ll get a team together to do some research in order to narrow down the area. Do you have anything that can detect the energy signature?”

“My Mother Box can sense it, but I have to get close to it first.” Orion set the Box down on the monitor’s dashboard.

“Do you know what you’re looking for? What does it look like? Do you know if it’s an object, or some kind of being?” Batman asked as he continued to type.

“… I don’t know.”

Batman stopped typing. He turned around to face the New God.

“You don’t know what you’re looking for, yet you were expecting the entire Justice League to drop everything that they’re doing, to help you scour the globe looking for _something_ and what? _Hope_ you recognize it when you see it?”

“I… admit that I didn’t entirely think this through when I got the notification,” Orion grit out through clenched teeth. “But we don’t have _time_ for this! I _need_ to find the source of that energy before someone else does. There’s more at stake here than you seem to understand!”

Batman narrowed his eyes, unmoving.

Orion snarled and loudly made his way to the other side of the room to pace and grumble to himself as Batman continued working on the research and putting a team together.

A few minutes later, Batman’s communicator blinked.

_“Hey, Batman. I just wanted to let you know that we’re going to have two new guests in the Watchtower tonight,”_ Superman’s voice called from the communicator.

“Superman, do I need to remind you—“ Batman started.

_“Look, yeah, I know. But listen. Zatara was able to wake them up, but the kid passed out again almost immediately. The yeti called himself Frostbite, and calls the kid ‘Great One,’ or Lord Phantom.”_

Orion stopped pacing.

_“Apparently, they’re from an alternate dimension from another universe called the Infinite Realms—“_

“WHAT?” Orion shouted.

Batman sighed. _Of course_ the world was that small. The New God raced over to where he sat.

“Orion, we—“ Batman tried, before Orion grabbed the communicator out of his hand.

“Superman!” he barked. “Did you just say that you have found _the_ King Phantom of the Infinite Realms?!”

_“Yeah, we did,”_ Superman said with an amused twinge to his voice.

Orion looked to Batman before he ran out of the room, barely waiting for the door to open.

“Alright,” the Dark Knight sighed. “I’ll make sure a med-bay room is prepared.”

_“Thanks, Bats.”_

+++ +++ +++

There was a small crowd in the docking bay, waiting for Superman and company to return. After Orion had run through the halls of the Watchtower, people’s curiosities were piqued, to say the least.

Word had quickly spread of _who_ Superman had in tow, and the few people on the base who had heard the legends of the _Great King Phantom_ of the _Long Lost Infinite Realms_ , along with some who hadn’t, had flocked to the area.

“Okay Z, you got me… _What_ exactly are you so excited about?” huffed an impatient Supergirl. Zatanna turned to her and bounced on her heels.

“Oh come _on_ , Kara! This is _King Phantom_ we’re talking about!” the sorceress practically yelled. She was met with an unimpressed stare. Zatanna deflated. “Right, you haven’t read the scriptures…”

She paused for a moment and tapped her chin with a finger.

“Let me put it this way,” she started. “A thousand years ago, this guy was like, the _Superman_ of the mystical community. He even had sidekicks that were always with him! His greatest companions: the spirit of an ancient Pharaoh, and a Dark Dryad—“

“A ‘ _Dark Dryad’_? What’s that supposed to be?” Supergirl interrupted.

“A wood nymph or nature elemental who is fueled by vengeance of the exploitation and destruction of the natural recourses,” Zatanna replied. “Furthermore, he even had an arch nemesis; a Vampire Lord that was also his uncle—though I think that part may have been made up to add drama to the legends. Anyway, the reason he became king was because he battled the previous king, an evil giant, in single combat, and won! Grateful for their newfound freedom from the tyrannical ruler, they crowned him king, and he went on to become the greatest leader the Infinite Realms had seen before it was destroyed.”

“If he was such a great leader, why was it destroyed?” Supergirl asked. “And how did he survive?”

“Umm…” Zatanna tried to think back to when she had read the legends. “I… Actually, no one knows why it was destroyed, and everyone thought that he had perished along with his realm, so…” Her face lit up and she pointed to somewhere behind her friend. “Maybe we can ask him when he gets here.”

Supergirl turned around and saw the docking bay doors open to reveal Superman’s ship as it entered the Watchtower. The pair started to make their way to the front of the small crowd, where Orion stood, or rather, _paced_ , when Batman walked in, followed by—

“MAKE WAY PLEASE!” an orderly shouted, wheeling in a stretcher behind them. The crowd parted to allow the makeshift medical bed to pass. They all looked up to the ship when they heard the hiss of the opening cockpit and passenger doors.

Superman walked out first, spotted the stretcher, and made a motion to the inside of the ship. Just a moment later, a massive, furry creature with horns, a spiked tail, and an arm made of ice and bone walked out, carrying what looked like a bundle of white cloth in his arms. Wonder Woman and Zatara exited afterwards, not that any eyes were on them as the creature made his way to the cot, and gently laid the bundle across the surface, revealing it to be the unconscious body of a teenage boy, obscured by a white cloak.

“Please take good care of the Great One,” he said in a surprisingly eloquent manner. “He just needs to rest.”

“Right,” the orderly nodded, looking the yeti up and down. “Follow me to the med bay; you should get looked at too.”

Surprise filtered through the ghost’s face as he looked down at himself. With the crude stitches of Superman and Wonder Woman, none of his wounds were bleeding anymore, but some of his fur was still stained and matted with his own ectoplasm.

“Oh, ahh, yes, of course,” he said as he trailed behind the stretcher and medical staff. Everyone moved aside as they went by, whispering questions and concerns to each other as the yeti and the boy passed.

Once the doors had closed behind them, Orion walked up to Superman, looked him dead in the eyes, and frowned.

“What was that?” he hissed. “I thought you said that you found King Phantom, not a yeti and some kid who _happen_ to be from the Infinite Realms!”

“Well, _technically_ ,” Superman smiled. “That kid _is_ King Phantom.”

“What do you mean ‘ _technically’_?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hey! Anyone going to Sacanime (an anime convention in California) next weekend? (Aug 31 – Sep 2, 2018) Cuz I’ll be there selling prints and stuff! Table AA;I11, come say hi if you want!  :D


	4. Remembrance

 

Danny blinked the bleariness out of his eyes.

He groaned. It was too bright in there, and the beeping of the machines was very quickly getting annoying and— wait a minute. He sat up.

He was in a hospital room with advanced-looking machines that he was _hooked up to and oh Ancients_ —

“Great One! You are awake!” shouted a very familiar voice from the other side of the room, along with heavy footsteps. Danny turned his head and got a face-full of fur from his massive mentor. Huge arms enveloped him in a hug that left him struggling to breathe.

“Ow ow ow ow!” he yelped. Frostbite immediately released his hold on the boy. Danny rubbed one of his arms. “ _Awake_ , but not a hundred percent yet, I guess…” he trailed off as he looked around the strange room. “Hey, uhh, Frostbite? Where are we? This isn’t—this isn’t a GIW—“

“No!” the yeti quickly assured the young hero. “We—hmm…” He furrowed his brow and looked away for a moment. “Great One. What is the last thing you remember?”

Danny narrowed his eyes in concern, but tried to remember anyway.

“Well… there was that thing… with the truce,” he started. “But… but when we got there—oh _Ancients_! Dora—is, is she really--?” Danny let out a broken sigh at Frostbite’s nod, and continued. “After that, we couldn’t--… the _explosion_ … and—and everything was just—it was just… _crumbling_ … all around us… and everything went dark.” He took a shaky breath and blinked. “But then I woke up in a sparkling palace, and… and then I woke up here.”

He looked around the room now that it was more in focus. He rubbed his gloved fingers over the blanket that laid on top of him. Everything _felt_ real… but it couldn’t possibly be… could it? He looked back up to Frostbite.

“What is this place? I thought the destruction of the Ghost Zone would destroy everything—“ his eyes widened in hope. “Does—does this mean that—“

“I am afraid not, Great One.” Frostbite watched as the boy’s face fell with a mixture of confusion and sadness. “How much do you know about the multiverse?”

“Uhh, not much,” Danny’s eyebrows scrunched together. “My parents were obsessed with the theory for like, a month, but then dismissed it. Are you saying that we’re in another universe?”

“Yes,” the yeti confirmed. “I was able to use the last of the Infi-map’s power to transport us here.”

The teen looked down with dull green eyes and stared distantly beyond the blanket in his lap.

“So everyone else is…?”

“I am truly sorry, Great One.”

Danny pulled his knees up to his chest and buried his face in his legs. He cried silently as his mentor, now the last person in the whole of reality that he knew, rubbed circles on his back and whispered quiet assurances.

After a few minutes, they heard a knock at the door. Danny immediately wiped his eyes and looked to Frostbite. The yeti gave him a comforting smile and moved towards the front of the room.

“Do not worry, Great One. These people are not our enemies.” He twisted the knob and opened the door. “In fact, I believe that in time, they will become great allies.”

Three people, dressed nothing like what Danny had ever seen before, entered the room. The first man was tall and muscular, and wore a jumpsuit and cape that looked like he walked right out of a comic book. He had a kind face that made the out-of-place teen feel like everything was going to be okay. The next woman was as tall as the man, and had more of a lean musculature that made her look just as formidable. She wore what looked like an armored swimsuit with knee-high boots and a rope at her hip. If she didn’t move with the grace and presence only born and bred royalty could achieve, Danny would have assumed she was trying to go for a pinup cowgirl look. The last man was very different from the other two, as he didn’t ware any bright colors or a disarming smile. He had a black cowl with pointed ears on top, and a similarly black cloak that wrapped around him, obscuring the rest of his costume. If he had had the typical gold jewelry, Danny would have thought that he was trying to be Anubis, but something didn’t fit quite right with that idea.

“I’m glad you think so too, Frostbite,” the brightly colored man smiled. He then turned to Danny and bowed. “Good evening, Lord Phantom, and welcome to the Watchtower. We hope your stay will be pleasant.”

Danny just stared at him, wide-eyed. He blinked a couple times to shake himself out of his stupor.

“Uh, yeah… thanks,” he replied. “Um, you can just call me Danny, uh, or Phantom, if you want.”

The man blinked in surprise. He had probably been talking to Frostbite while Danny was unconscious. That yeti sure loved using titles.

“Well, uh, Danny, I’m Superman,” he introduced. “This is Wonder Woman, and Batman.” He gestured to the metal swimsuit woman and the Anubis man… or rather, the bat man. “We’re part of the original founding members of the Justice League, and this Watchtower is our headquarters.”

“ _Justice League_?” Danny scrunched his eyebrows together and looked at each of them individually, taking in their costumes once more. “So you’re like… superheroes or something?”

The brightly colored man, now known as Superman, smiled. He opened his mouth to speak, but—

“What are you going to do with us?” Danny asked suspiciously as he crossed his arms and frowned.

“Great One, I believe—“

“No!” the teen interrupted. “They’re not the first organization to call themselves _heroes_ , and I’m tired of trusting people just so they can betray us later! Last time I ignored my gut, our whole _universe_ got destroyed.”

“Is your gut telling you that we can’t be trusted?” the man in black, Batman, spoke for the first time.

“Yes!” Danny spat. “N-no—I don’t know! I don’t know what to believe anymore.” He let his head fall in his hands, his white hair covering his face. “I wanted to believe them so much, Frostbite… If I had just—I should have seen it coming.”

“You must not think that way, Great One,” the yeti said softly as he tried to comfort the boy. “We had all been blinded by our hope… But I believe with my entire being that the people here are _different_. ”

Danny gripped his hair in his hands as he squeezed his eyes shut. After a moment, he sighed heavily and released his hold, letting his hands drop to his lap. Wonder Woman stepped forward, knelt down next to him, and placed one of her hands in his.

“Lord Phantom, will you tell us what happened?”

He lifted his gaze and stared into her bright blue eyes, trying to find even a hint of a reason not to trust her.

“Sure…”

+++ +++ +++

Danny cleared his throat and readjusted his position on the medical bed to get comfortable. He looked into the curious eyes of the three superheroes, suddenly getting a little nervous.

“Umm… please save all questions for the end, okay? Okay. So, uh… In our universe, there was the Living Realm, and the Ghost Zone—or Infinite Realms, as some of the older ghosts called it. They were opposite sides of the same coin; one could not exist without the other. Most of the ghosts in the Zone just wanted to live out their afterlives in peace; but some wanted to hurt people, and cause mayhem and havoc among the Living. Every so often, there’d be a natural portal, which would allow them to get out; but since those were few and far between, ghosts could never really cause that much damage in the Living Realm.

“But then modern technology caught up to it, and a pair of scientists built a man-made portal to the Ghost Zone. The more malicious ghosts found out about this constant entrance into the Living Realm, and needless to say, they took advantage of it.

“It was my fault that the portal turned on in the first place, so I took it upon myself to put the evil ghosts back in the Ghost Zone where they belonged. That was… really when everything started to go downhill.”

He was silent as his eyes went distant. After a moment, he took a breath and blinked himself back to reality.

“I had everything under control for a while, but then Vlad—my former arch enemy—put a bounty on my head, which drew in a secret government agency that people had called the Guys in White, or GIW. I never did find out what they were really called... At first, they were just as bad at catching ghosts as everyone else… but as the months went on, they started to get better, and pretty soon, they were actually a threat.

“Now, if they had just gone after the evil ghosts, the ones who were actually hurting people, and were, you know, _humane_ about it, I wouldn’t have had a problem. But they went after _all_ ghosts. They couldn’t tell the difference between the ghost of a lost child and _Skulker the Hunter_. They thought all ghosts were evil, no matter what they did… but the worst part was when they actually caught one.

“I… I didn’t know what was going on at first. Sometimes a ghost would disappear for a few days. Good for me, I didn’t have to worry about them popping up in the middle of the night. But when they came back… the look in their eyes… I’d never seen anything like it, and they didn’t talk about it.”

Danny rubbed his face with his hands and sighed.

“It wasn’t until a month later that I found out why the ghosts were disappearing. I should’ve—I only went looking because one of the weaker ghosts hadn’t come back. That was when—“ He gulped and took a shaky breath, while Frostbite put a comforting hand on his back. “That was when I found them; the GIW. They were _experimenting_ on them, on the ghosts that they caught. This had been going on for _weeks_ , and I didn’t stop them because I didn’t bother to find out!”

The heroes looked at the young teen, who was tugging at his hair, eyes squeezed shut to prevent himself from crying again, and fully understood what Frostbite had said when the boy first woke up in the Fortress. ‘ _This burden should never have been yours to bear.’_ He was far too young to be carrying the guilt of an entire universe on his shoulders.

“I got the rest of the ghosts out, and destroyed the lab,” he continued after a moment. He looked up to see Superman’s eyes widen, Wonder Woman’s face filled with worry, and Batman’s eyes narrow. Danny frowned. “I didn’t hurt any of the humans, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

The teen let his gaze fall upon his hands as he balled them into fists.

“But I wanted to… I really did.” He lifted his eyes to the heroes’. “They—the GIW… they were trying to find out our weaknesses, what would hurt us the most. They wanted to build something that would destroy us all… the whole Ghost Zone, with everyone in it.

“Apparently, they used that incident to justify themselves declaring war on the ghosts. They started to attack us more often, and more brutally, so we had to retaliate. I managed to convince the ghosts not to hurt any of the humans they find, even the GIW; we just hit their labs when we could find them. But there was still a toll on both sides, and everyone knew it.

“I… a little while ago, I had defeated the previous Ghost King, so a lot of the ghosts considered me their new king, or at least, the closest thing to a king I can get without actually getting crowned; so they wanted me to lead them, and by extension, represent them in the human world. We—uh, me, Frostbite, and Princess Dora—we started talking to the human government that was supposed to be in charge of the GIW, trying to end the war.

“After the first few meetings, some of the top GIW members started to attend. They started talking about a truce. _Peace_. How could—how could we _not_ want to believe them? They even stopped catching and experimenting on ghosts… it… it was like they finally realized that ghosts were just like people, with a wide range of good and evil, innocence and corruption, just like everyone else. I… I thought that… maybe, they finally saw us as sentient beings that—that didn’t deserve to be _exterminated_.

“We should have known better.”

Danny now let the tears fall freely as the events of the last two days repeated in his mind, showing him all the signs that he missed, the actions he failed to take… the people he could have saved.

“They had contacted us. They said that they had finished writing the terms and conditions of the truce; that we had to meet on neutral ground—away from any ghost portal or GIW base. We jumped at the chance for real peace, and immediately accepted. I should’ve—we didn’t—“

He sighed and wiped his eyes.

“It was a trap.”

From the edge of his vision, Danny could see the heroes frown as they listened to his story. He ignored them and continued.

“When we got there, three GIW agents were already waiting for us. We didn’t think anything of it, I mean, they were just early, right? But when we got closer, one of them pulled out a blaster, and—and Dora, all of a sudden she was in front of me, crumbling apart like a piece of dried clay; I’d never seen an ecto-blaster do anything like that before… I guess they stopped experimenting on us because they had already gotten what they wanted.

“But then there was the sound of a distant explosion, and the world started shaking. The ground was splitting and the sky started to crack like glass. They made a bomb that could destroy the Ghost Zone, and they set it off. We _told_ them—we told them what would happen! But they didn’t listen! They _never_ listened! They just doomed an entire universe to Oblivion because of their prejudice and hatred.”

He wrapped his arms around his legs and pulled them tight to his chest, dull green eyes distantly looking beyond the foot of the bed. The other heroes were silent for a moment before they realized that that was the end, and he wasn’t going to continue. Superman opened his mouth—

Danny lifted his head suddenly as a wisp of blue mist escaped his lips. His body tensed before a transparent, grey-skinned man in a red full-body leotard phased through the wall, into the hospital room.

“Woah, I guess John was tellin’ the truth.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I was going to continue this scene, but it’s a change in tone that I thought would be better in a separate chapter.   
> AN2: ALSO, remember how I have a tumblr that posts teaser quotes a couple days before the chapters come out? I know I just said it in chapter 2, but: Pandemi-Writes . tumblr . com  
> AN3: So the con went well enough, I guess. But I’m going to try to get into Sac-Con instead, because most of my stuff is more comic/cartoon based, and not anime based. (also, Pandemi-Doodles . tumblr . com is my art blog) But the tables don’t go on sale until Sunday, so idk if I’ll be able to get in yet.


	5. Magic? Magic!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to let everyone know, I'm not super satisfied with this chapter, but if I ever wanted to do anything with this fic again, I had to let it go and just run with it... so here ya go.

_Danny lifted his head suddenly as a wisp of blue mist escaped his lips. His body tensed before a transparent, grey-skinned man in a red full-body leotard phased through the wall, into the hospital room._

“Woah, I guess John was tellin’ the truth,” the new ghost said, almost to himself. He wore a weird, contemplative look on his face as he stared at Danny, like he was confused, but knew he shouldn’t be, but couldn’t figure out why.

“Who are you?” Danny asked, suspicion coloring his voice. The Leaguers in the room shared a look of confusion as the boy seemed to be looking and speaking to thin air.

“Deadman, I presume? Superman spoke of your earlier.” Frostbite stepped forward and raised a clawed hand, tearing the new ghost’s attention away from his young friend. Realization passed through the other heroes’ faces as they turned to look at relatively where they thought the ghost would be.

Danny narrowed his eyes at the scene, but he trusted his mentor’s instincts; and if the yeti didn’t seem worried or uneasy at all, then he figured that he should at least try to make himself relax.

“Uhh, yeah. Name’s Boston Brand,” the ghost floated closer to the yeti and shook his hand, eyes darting between Frostbite and Danny. “Wow, I mean, really, just wow. I heard Rama Kushna talk about you _True Spirit_ guys, but I just kinda thought it was a load of bologna. But look at you! I mean, they can see you and everything!”

Frostbite furrowed his brows and glanced at the three living heroes.

“You mean to say that they cannot see you?” He frowned slightly as Superman shook his head, not wanting to interrupt if Deadman was still speaking. The ghost only grinned.

“Nah, but it’s okay, watch this!” He cupped his hands around his mouth, took a deep breath, and—

“Boston!” The door flew open, making Danny jump and regain his earlier tension, to reveal a lightly panting man in a top hat and tuxedo, followed closely by a girl that looked a few years older than Danny himself, also in a tuxedo, but the pants had been replaced with fishnet stockings. Behind them was a blond girl that was in a similar costume to Superman’s, but with a skirt and shorter cape. He assumed that they were sidekicks or protégés.

“I told you to wait for me to properly introduce you,” the man said as if this had happened before. “You cannot just go anywhere you please, especially not an _occupied medical room_!”

“Aww, come on John, everyone knows that that’s more of a suggestion,” Deadman sighed dramatically, waving his hands. “No one was complainin’!”

“ _A suggestion_?” Tuxedo guy sputtered. “It’s called _manners_ , Boston! Just because most people can’t see you doesn’t mean that you are exempt from showing common decency!—“

“Hey, come on dad, maybe you should lay off him a bit,” Fishnets backed. “He was just really excited to see more ghosts, right Boston?”

“Well yeah,” he shrugged. “It’s not every day a guy like me gets to meet two famous ghosts!—“

“Famous?”

Everyone turned their attention back to Danny, who looked _very_ confused.

“Frostbite, I thought you said that we were in a different universe,” he whispered as he turned to his mentor, suddenly getting uneasy again, knowing that there was probably more to this situation than he realized. “How could anyone possibly know of us here? And _famous_? Since when are we famous among _humans_? Is that why they keep calling me _Lord_ —“ He blinked and glanced back to Deadman. “Wait, didn’t you just say that no one could see you? What about… um… I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are?”

“Ahh, young Lord Phantom, you’re awake!” the tuxedo man smiled. Before Danny could correct him, he took off his top hat and bowed while the girls behind him rolled their eyes. “Giovanni Zatara, _Magician Extraordinaire_ , at your service. This is my daughter Zatanna, and this is Superman’s younger cousin, Supergirl.” The two girls waved. “And as for your other question: Only those with magic in their blood, such as Zatanna, myself, and other mages and sorcerers, have the natural ability to see otherwise invisible supernatural entities, so long as they are not actively trying to make themselves invisible.

“Speaking of which; **_Tel meht ees eht daed_**!” He waved his hands in the air and everyone’s eyes, save for the two magicians’ and the ghosts’, sparkled for a moment before they blinked it away and greeted Deadman properly, now that they could see him.

“We online?” Deadman asked, giving everyone a thumbs up. “Awesome.”

Danny stayed silent for a moment, as his jaw was almost on the ground.

“So magic is a thing that people can use in this universe?” The young ghost teen managed to close his mouth with some effort. “The only magic I’d ever seen was Desiree’s wish granting, but she was a ghost.”

The older heroes shared a glance, then turned back to the boy.

“Lord—uh, Danny,” Wonder Woman started. “ _You_ use magic.”

He blinked, then frowned slightly.

“Um, no? I use ecto-blasts.” He demonstrated by creating a little ball of ecto-energy in his hands, then let it dissipate. “It’s not magic, it’s science.”

“I hate to contradict you, Great One,” Frostbite spoke up. “But it is actually magic; all creatures from the Infinite Realms use it, even you.”

“But my p—but the Fentons have done research and studies, all tying it back to science—“

“Based on false assumptions,” the yeti revealed. “You know that the Fentons had already tweaked their data to confirm their theory that ghosts were just globs of barely sentient malevolent energy; do you really think that they would not do the same to prove to their scientific world that we existed in the first place? The humans in your universe could never have accepted _magic_ as our source.”

Danny blinked again, and looked down, rubbing his chin in thought.

“That… does actually make more sense,” the boy nodded. “So… then what about this supposed _alternate universe fame_ that we apparently have? Is it a good fame… or a bad fame?” His face became more and more worried with each word.

Zatara raised his hands, to try to calm the slowly panicking ghost boy.

“Not to worry, it just so happens to be a very good fame,” he said with a smile. “Although I suppose that… over time, your deeds may have been _exaggerated_ a bit.”

Danny cocked his head to one side and narrowed his eyes.

“What do you mean, _‘over time’_? I just became a ghost less than two years ago, that doesn’t seem like nearly enough time for me to become famous in a different universe, _and_ to have exaggerated rumors, especially _good_ rumors; usually everything I do is twisted in a negative light.”

“I ahh,” Zatara hesitated. “I believe that Frostbite should tell this one. It is quite a long story.”

+++ +++ +++

It had taken a while, but the ghostly yeti was able to recount everything that they had discovered while Danny was unconscious. The young teen had reacted much the same as Frostbite himself had. He blinked several times before he broke the silence that reigned over the room as everyone allowed him to process the new information.

“A- a thousand years?” Danny muttered in confusion. “But we’re still—but it’s still today?”

“In a way, yes,” his large mentor confirmed. “Although I do not believe that this will impact your life here much, Great One. You have dealt with over exaggerated rumors before.”

“Yeah, but not like this!” Danny ran his gloved hands down his face. “Won’t everyone here be disappointed that I’m just… I don’t know… _me_? I’m not some legendary ghost king! I mean, I haven’t even finished high school yet!”

“That can be arranged,” Superman spoke up. “Metropolis has great schools. You could even go with Kara.” He gestured towards Supergirl. Her head snapped up to him as though she just started listening.

“Uh, yeah, sure!” She smiled.

Zatanna tilted her head to one side and looked between Superman and Danny.

“But he’s… I mean,” she hesitated. “He’s a ghost. Wouldn’t it be better if he was taught by another ghost? Or at least a magic-based hero from the League?”

“Wait, you guys were taking that literally?” Supergirl blurted. “He’s not a ghost.”

“Of course he’s a ghost,” Zatanna said. “Granted, he’s very powerful, which is why you can see him without magic, but he’s still a ghost—“

“But he’s not dead,” Supergirl put her hands on her hips. “How can he be a ghost if he’s got a heartbeat?”

Danny looked up at her with wide eyes before Deadman snapped his fingers.

“That’s it! I knew I was missin’ somethin’!” The ghost man grinned. “You’re a Halfa, right?” Danny tensed. “Holy—I didn’t think it was possible! No wonder Rama seemed excited earlier, she could sense you!”

“Wait, what’s a _Halfa_?” Supergirl raised an eyebrow, not noticing that the boy in question was getting paler. “That sounds like an insult.”

“Nah, it’s just a slang term because everyone thought that _half ghosts_ were just a myth,” Deadman explained. “I think the actual name is—damn, what did Rama call him?—a _Lee oh Thai cirque so_?”

Their attention was brought back to the boy and his yeti when they heard a sound that vaguely resembled the combination of a choke and a cough. When they turned to look, they saw that Frostbite was smiling down at Danny, but the teen’s face was bright green.

“Umm… are you okay?” Deadman asked.

“Uh, yeah,” the boy squeaked, getting greener.

“Then why are you green? Oh _sh_ —“

“ _Boston_!”

“Was that insulting?” the ghost continued. “Oh man I’m so sorry, I didn’t think Rama would—“

“No no no! It’s alright—it’s just that—“ Danny hesitated. “I’ve never been called anything like that before, it’s a little embarrassing.”

“Wait, why? What does it mean?” Deadman rambled.

“ _Lyuo Tycyrxo_ ,” the teen started.

“How’d you make that sound with your mouth?—“

“It means ‘ _Perfection’_ or ‘ _True_ _Balance’_ in the ghosts’ language.” He ran a hand through his white hair and frowned bitterly. “If only that were true… I’m hardly perfect, I’m not even _good enough_.”

“You must not think that way Great One,” Frostbite tried. “I understand that you are angry and grieving for your universe, but you must not direct that anger at yourself; it will only serve to destroy you from within.”

Danny’s eyes shot up to the yeti’s as he glared.

“ _I’m_ angry? _My_ universe? It was _your_ universe too!” he snarled. “ _You_ lived there for longer than I did. _You_ had a whole village of people that you lost. How can you be so calm about this? We lost _everything_! How can you be so _heartless_?!”

Frostbite’s eyes lost their previous emotion as he took a step back.

“Frostbite… I—“

“You misunderstand, Great One,” he said softly. “Before the _Rift_ , the Infinite Realms were just that: _Infinite_. The _Rift_ cut us off not only from the rest of the multiverse, but it even bound us to just your world. Most of us could not even leave your one town. I grieve for my people in my own way, but not for your universe. To the ghosts and spirits who could remember what it was like before, our reality had turned into a _prison_. But some of us hadn’t been in the Infinite Realms during the Rift; some liked to visit other universes. I thought that I would never see them again, but Mr. Brand here has confirmed that at least some of them have thrived wherever they found themselves. This is—“

“Wait, what did I do?” Deadman interrupted. He cringed when he noticed some of the heroes’ glares at cutting off the yeti’s emotional speech.

“Lady Rama Kushna, the Spirit of Balance,” Frostbite clarified. “She was one of the most powerful beings in the Infinite Realms.” He smiled softly. “She loved this universe, and visited often. If she had been cut off anywhere, I am glad that it was here.”

He looked back over to Danny.

“As I was saying, Great One,” the yeti continued. “This is not only a cause for grief and sadness, but also for celebration and reunions. Grieve for your loved ones, but do not forget that your life is not over; it is merely beginning anew.”

The boy bowed his head in contemplation, taking in the words of his friend and mentor. He didn’t notice the loud footsteps getting louder from the other side of the medical room door. He _did_ notice when the door swung open and a voice shouted—

“Is Phantom awake yet?—“

“I’m awake Mr. Lancer!” Danny’s eyes immediately shot up to the new figure. He blinked. That wasn’t Mr. Lancer.

“Uhh…”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I REALLY NEED TO FOCUS ON CLASSES RIGHT NOW, SO I’M GOING TO BE WORKING ON A HALLOWEEN ONE-SHOT, BUT AFTER THAT, UPDATES WILL CONTINUE IN DECEMBER. I am really sorry for all the long waits on this fic.
> 
> Fun Fact: Both Orion and Mr. Lancer are voiced by Ron Perlman.
> 
> AN: So usually, I like the DP canon that ghosts are based in science, and that Danny is more of a meta than magic… but in this AU, it’s magic.   
> AN2: Also, yes, in this fic he has a heartbeat in Ghost Form. I know that usually people don’t have it, but I kinda wanted it for chapter 1, so… now I have it.  
> AN3: I’m sorry that like… nothing happens in any of my chapters. I’m not so good with action. One time, in a Creative Writing class that I failed, I spent 3 whole pages just describing a hallway and a door. But I promise that things will be happening soon!   
> AN4: I did create my own “Ghost Language,” but I will be using it sparingly, if at all again.


	6. The End of the Beginning... Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SO SORRY that this chapter took so long. Thank y'all for waiting patiently! :)
> 
> Regarding Deadman not understanding Ghostspeak: I headcanoned that in this AU, ghosts and other spirits have to be exposed to the Infinite Realms’ energy in order to absorb information. One of the first things that they learn is Ghostspeak. However, Boston has never been to the Infinite Realms; and even though Rama Kushna is from the Infinite Realms, the residual energy has dissipated over the millennia enough to where it doesn’t affect him.  
> (I forgot to put that at the end of the last chapter, so here’s that explanation!)

_"I’m awake Mr. Lancer!” Danny’s eyes immediately shot up to the new figure. He blinked. That wasn’t Mr. Lancer._

“Uhh… I mean, yeah, I’m awake,” he said as he crossed his arms. He felt like there was suddenly a lot of people in the room, and they all seemed to know who he was. He felt their eyes on him all the time; always looking at him. But it was different than how the GIW did it. These people looked at him like he was more than just a person. If he admitted anything to himself, it would be that he was _not_ looking forward to when he would inevitably disappoint them all—

“Greetings, Lord Phantom,” the man said in a voice that Danny never thought he’d hear outside of a middle-aged English professor, though it lacked the droning quality that usually lulled him to sleep after a long night. “I am Orion of New Genesis, and I’m here to take you to Highfather immediately.”

And apparently he doesn’t bother with pleasantries.

“You can’t be serious,” Superman cut in. “Orion, he just woke up.”

Orion turned to him and frowned.

“He’s not safe on this… primitive base,” the helmeted man grimaced. “There are forces at work here beyond your _comprehension_ , Superman.”

The Kryptonian’s nostrils flared. He did not appreciate it when people implied that wouldn’t understand something. His enemies, and even some allies tended to underestimate his intelligence simply because he liked to stay positive in most situations; they viewed it as naivety.

“Then please, _enlighten_ me.”

“Is there gonna be a fight?” Deadman floated down closer to Wonder Woman and Batman. “Are they gonna fight? Oh man, where did I put my camera?” He started twisting and turning as if it were on him currently. Before either of them could move to try to break up the inevitable argument, their extra-universal guest spoke up.

“Hey, whoa there, guys,” Danny raised his hands in a placating gesture before tossing his blanket to one side and flipped his legs over the edge. He hoisted himself off the bed and winced slightly when his previously broken leg had his weight put on it. “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on, and let _me_ decide what I—“

He took one step and felt himself lean forward, and continue leaning, much to the protests of his own mind. He was caught by a large furry hand as a bright light encompassed the room and two white rings formed around his waist and split apart; his black and white jumpsuit turned into a white t-shirt and jeans, glowing green eyes changed to an icy blue, and snow white hair morphed into a tangled black mess. The teen straightened himself, wobbled, and sat heavily back on the medical bed.

“Great,” he murmured as he rubbed his aching temples. “There goes my secret identity…”

“Wait, what was that?” Supergirl looked over to Zatanna. “Ghosts can shapeshift? Like J’onn?”

“No, he’s that _Leo Tie_ thing! A living ghost,” Deadman explained. “This is your human form, right kid?”

“Um, yeah, but I usually only change back when I run out of the energy to hold my other form,” Danny said, looking back up at Frostbite. “I felt fine a minute ago, so why’d I feel like garbage as soon as I stood up?”

Surprisingly, the yeti grinned at the boy, displaying his sharp, animalistic teeth, and not-so-gently patted him on the back.

“This is actually good news, Great One!”

Danny tried to glare skeptically at his friend, but it only came out to be a halfhearted scowl.

“It means that your body is healed enough so that it no longer needs the constant support of your ghost half to survive,” Frostbite elaborated. “Now all you need is to rest and replenish your energy, and your body should be back to normal by morning.”

The boy gave a short nod, but even that small action made his eyes feel heavy. He quietly sighed.

“Think you guys could fill me in on what you’re talking about like, tomorrow? Then I could, you know, do… whatever?” Danny trailed off as he looked up at Orion, who was just staring at a small black rectangular box with a frown. He pressed some sort of button, then hooked it back onto his belt.

“It seems that you can stay here for the time being and get yourself better acquainted with this universe, Lord Phantom,” Orion said before he gave a quick bow. “Lay low. I’ll be back within the week.”

Danny blinked at the sudden change in attitude, but was too tired to try to come up with a response before the man was out the door and out of sight.

“Oookay, well, we should probably go too, right dad?” Zatanna clapped her hands together and turned towards her father.

“Ah, yes, you are absolutely right,” Zatara motioned towards the door. “Come along girls; Boston. Kara, I believe you mentioned something earlier about homework?”

The girl in blue jumped and cupped her face with her hands as she gasped.

“Ohmygosh! I totally forgot! It’s due tomorrow, I gotta go!” She almost flew out of the room before pausing at the door, smiling sheepishly. “Umm, it was nice meeting you, Danny. Welcome to uhh… our universe, I guess? I’ll see you later, bye!”

Wonder Woman and Batman also took their leave with Zatara and company, leaving only Danny, Frostbite, and Superman in the room. The latter rubbed the back of his neck with a hand.

“I know this probably doesn’t mean much right now, but it gets better; you know, the feeling of being alone,” he said with a smile. “Trust me, my world was destroyed too; of course, it’s not an entire universe, but actually a lot of the heroes in the Justice League have lost their people as well. So if you ever need to talk to anyone… we’re always here.”

With that, he left the two ghosts alone.

For a few minutes, the room was completely silent. Danny glanced at his friend.

“Frostbite?”

“Yes, Great One?”

“You won’t… you’ll…” He sighed. “You’ll stay here, right?”

“Of course, Great One.”

“Thanks, Frostbite.”

Danny laid back down in the bed, and after a few moments, the only sound in the room was the soft snore emanating from beneath the boy’s blanket.

“Good night, Danny.”

* * *

The next morning, Danny woke up slowly, his dream still lingering in his eyes.

He had dreamt of his friends and family; of good times.

He missed them.

But the people he met yesterday gave him a bit of hope. Not the hope that he’d ever be able to return to his own universe— watching it crumble and disintegrate before his eyes pretty much sealed that one. Instead, they gave him hope for the future. He could start over. A new life in a new universe where he could be a hero, and he wouldn’t be hated or hunted for simply existing. In the end, that’s all he ever wanted.

He would always miss his parents, his sister, his friends, hell, even his enemies! But right now, all he wanted to do was _not_ deal with those emotions right now.

When he finally opened his eyes and sat up in the bed, he saw Frostbite on the other side of the room quietly talking with another person; not anyone that he met yesterday, that’s for sure. This guy was wearing red from head to toe, with yellow lightning bolts around his arms and waist, and one on his chest. Danny mutely wondered how many heroes this one universe had.

The man turned his head towards him and smiled.

“Oh hey, you’re up! I hope I didn’t wake you, I was just talking with your bud Frosty for a while.” The man walked over to Danny as he was getting out of bed, and stretched out his hand as he continued to ramble. “Name’s Flash, you’re Danny, right? Or do you like Phantom? Lord Phantom? Frosty likes to call you Great One, though you probably already know that. I think I’ll just call you Danny if you don’t mind. I’m kinda hungry, are you hungry? Come on, I’ll show you where the cafeteria is, what are you in the mood for? Breakfast? Lunch? Brunch? It’s only ten o’clock so probably breakfast; or second breakfast in my case. Don’t worry kid, we’ve got the best scrambled eggs this side of Mars, heh, space station joke. Oh, unless you don’t like eggs, in that case, we’ve still got someth—“

“Wait wait wait,” Danny interrupted. “Space station joke? What are you talking about?”

Flash grinned wide.

“Yeah man, we’re in space! This whole rig is one big space station!” In the blink of an eye, he was at the door, opening it. Danny jumped at the display of the man’s power, he’d never seen anything like it without the use of time manipulation. Flash smiled sheepishly. “Right, _new_ , of course, sorry about that. I’ve got super speed, hence the name, Flash! But anyway, we’ve got this observation deck— a _huge_ reinforced window; it’s the best view outside of—you know, actually being _outside_. It’s on our way to the cafeteria, we can take a little detour if you want. You’re coming too, right Frostbite?”

The two looked at each other, then followed Flash out the door.

Danny didn’t even try to stop himself from staring at everything and everyone as the trio walked down the hallway towards the observation deck. There were so many heroes; it was almost like it was straight out of a comic book! Everyone was so lively and involved with their own conversations as they passed by.

Flash waved at a blonde girl around Danny’s age dressed in blue with white stars walking next to a bulky robot man easily twice her height.

“—so she comes _flying_ up to me yesterday and is like _‘Cortney, you’ve gotta help me!’_ And I’m like _‘Isn’t that due, like, tomorrow?’_ So we spent all night working on it—“ She continued to gossip after she excitedly waved back at Flash.

Next, Danny saw what looked to be an old western cowboy in an intense conversation with a medieval knight.

“—I want no back sassin’, front sassin’, nor side sassin’, ya hear? Now I can _undeniably prove_ that Johnny Cash is the best darn musician this world has ever had the grace a’ hearin’—“

“Yes, however that is but _one genre_ of your music, you have yet to hear the heavenly melodies of Camelot’s minstrels.”

“Now that there is a blessing if I ever did hear one—“ The two passed by without even noticing the trio.

“Hey _Flash_!” a voice that sounded startlingly like Paulina’s called out. A woman in green with long mint-colored hair strode up to the speedster, followed by a tan woman in blue with short white hair. “You still owe me twenty dollars from last week’s game.”

“Oh hey Fire, hey Ice! Lookin’ fine, as always,” Flash tried to flirt. Fire raised an eyebrow, while Ice giggled at her friend. “Right, yeah, I know, I’ll pay you tomorrow, promise!”

Fire rolled her eyes, but still smiled.

“If I could be paid in promises, I’d already have my money. Oh well, I see that you’re busy, so we’ll chat later. _Tchau!_ ”

Ice waved at Danny and Frostbite before leaving with Fire.

“Don’t worry, she digs me,” the speedster said as soon as the pair was out of earshot, causing Danny to give him a skeptical look.

After another minute or two of walking, Flash pointed to a large set of doors with a sign above them that read _Observatory_.

“Here we are,” he opened one of the doors and stood off to the side. “After you.”

They stepped inside and—

Whatever Danny was expecting, it was not this.

The room was made out of glass. It was a half-sphere that pointed outwards, with a floor that bisected it again, ending about two-thirds of the way with a railing, presumably so that people could look down as well as up into space. But not only that, the glass was so clear and the room had no lights for reflections or glare, that it seemed like the only thing separating a person from the void itself was the simple railing.

Only one person was in the room at the moment; their form silhouetted against the stars, and obscured by their cape. Still, Flash seemed to recognize them.

“Oh hey, J’onn! I didn’t know you were coming here too,” he called as he closed the door behind them. The figure turned around to show their unearthly solid red eyes.

“Good morning, Flash. You’re up early,” the figure said in a deep voice. “Ah, this must be King Phantom and Frostbite that Superman and Wonder Woman were talking about earlier? It would be my pleasure to welcome you to our universe, and I would also like to offer my condolences. I… understand what you are going through, to an extent.”

“Oh, um… thanks. And it’s just Danny.”

The man gave a slight bow and turned back to the stars.

Danny slowly made his way to the end of the platform and looked over the edge.

It was Earth. It looked just like _his_ Earth. He’d always wanted a first-hand view of it, but… something was off. He looked back into space, his eyes darting all over the place until he turned back to Flash.

“You said it was ten a.m., right? A-and that’s the northern hemisphere, right? What season is it?”

Flash blinked a couple times before responding.

“Uh, yeah, around ten; I think so; and like, spring? Almost summer.”

Danny whirled around, eyes desperately searching for…

A minute or so passed, and the boy’s shoulders slumped.

“I don’t… I don’t recognize any of these stars. None of the constellations are where they should be.” He sat down with his back towards the railing. “This really _is_ a completely different universe.”

He felt a large paw on his shoulder, and the space around him was illuminated by Frostbite’s natural glow.

“Then we will just have to learn this world’s star patterns,” the yeti suggested. He then turned towards the caped man standing next to them. Danny squinted his eyes. Now that he was angled better, and he could see the light from Frostbite’s ghostly aura, the man’s colors looked… odd. Almost as if— “I am sure the Great One would like to learn of yours as well, Martian.”

“I would be happy to oblige,” the man—the Martian smiled.

“Martian?” Danny sputtered. “Like, a _Martian_ Martian? As in, _from Mars_? As in life-on-other-planets _alien_ Martian?”

“Would that be so wrong if I were?” J’onn frowned.

Danny’s eyes widened as he backtracked, shaking his head and waving his hands in front of him.

“No no no! I just mean—I mean that’s so cool, you know?” He grinned. “I’ve never met an alien before; on my world, people were still debating on whether or not life on other planets existed at all—“

“Wait, didn’t you already meet Superman and Orion, though?” Flash interrupted.

“THEY’RE FROM MARS TOO?” Danny squawked.

Flash burst into laughter at the mental image, while J’onn just smiled once again.

“No—hahaha—no, Superman’s from Krypton, and—heeheeheh—and Orion’s from New Genesis,” the speedster informed between fits of giggles. “They’re both from different galaxies.”

Danny tilted his head to one side, and furrowed his eyebrows.

“Krypton?” he questioned. “Like… like the gas?” At their blank faces, he continued. “It um, it’s a noble gas, and it uh, glows blue?”

“Huh,” Flash responded. “No, but there’s Krypton _ite_. It’s a radioactive rock and it glows green most of the time.”

“Most of the time?” Danny muttered—when a loud gurgling noise erupted from Flash’s direction.

“Heh, maybe it’s time we started heading back over to the cafeteria?” he said, rubbing the back of his neck with an embarrassed smile—when an equally loud gargle came from Danny.

“Uh, yeah, that sounds like a good plan.” 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I know this chapter ended a bit abruptly, but this was actually just supposed to be a simple line-break. The chapter was getting too long, and y’all have waited so long, so I just split the chapter in 2, and I’ll upload the next part when I actually finish it.
> 
> AN2: So… I literally cannot write grieving people. My peeps on the Tungles suggested that I could do a Time Skip… but I can’t. The entire plot for the whole 3-part series takes place over like, a month or two? So here he is, sometimes grieving, sometimes not, going all over the place on the grief steps thing, because I don’t pay attention to what I write.
> 
> AN3: Maria Canals-Barrera voices Paulina, Hawkgirl, and Fire. I did actually go through the DP VA list and see if they were in Justice League; I found a few more, but I won’t really be mentioning them, so this is it. J
> 
> OH hey also, I made DP Tarot Cards! You can see them at   
> deviantart.com/pandemi-doodles/art/Danny-Phantom-Tarot-Cards-773883019   
> OR   
> pandemi-writes.tumblr.com/tagged/my-art


End file.
